On Nov. 17, 2025, the official account of League of Legends esports officially confirmed that Lee “Gumayusi” Min-hyeong is leaving T1 after winning the League of Legends 2025 World Championship and almost six years with the team. Reports are now indicating that Kim “Peyz” Su-hwan will be replacing the departing superstar.

Gumayusi’s 2025 run with T1 did not start well, with the AD Carry being benched in favor of Sin “Smash” Guem-jae, another AD Carry from T1’s academy team. In March, Joe Marsh, T1’s CEO, announced that Gumayusi and Smash will be competing in practice throughout the year and that the coaching staff will “ultimately determine which player gives us the best chance to win in the long run, and that player will play.”

In the same statement, Marsh reflected on Gumayusi’s performance throughout the year, praising his dedication and adaptability. He also said that changes to the game in 2025 will make their bot team evolve into a “hyper-carry position” and that he believes that Gumayusi will be able to adapt to this role.

Gumayusi’s departure from T1 has spawned rumors that Peyz will be replacing him. Peyz, at just 19 years old, is a three-time LCK champion and an MSI champion. He played for Gen.G before going to China to play for JD Gaming.

Gumayusi, meanwhile, is rumored to be joining Hanwha Life Esports, joining former teammate Choi “Zeus” Woo-je.

T1 secured the three-peat by winning the League of Legends World Championship 2025 Grand Final over KT Rolster with a 3:2 score on Nov. 9, 2025.

With this third consecutive championship trophy, T1 further solidified its dominance in the Telecom War, a rivalry between the two finalists that has spanned about 13 years. The standoff is called the Telecom War because T1 and KT Rolster represent two of South Korea’s biggest telecommunications companies, SK Telecom and KT Corporation, respectively.

From the total tournament’s prize pool of $5 million, T1 received $1 million, while KT Rolster got $800,000 for second place, leaving Top Esports and Gen.G Esports sharing third place and getting $400,000 each.

The team of winners included Choi “Doran” Hyeon-jun (Top), Mun “Oner” Hyeon-jun (Jungle), Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok (Mid), Lee “Gumayusi” Min-hyung (Bot), and Ryu “Keria” Min-seok (Support).

Lee “Gumayusi” Min-hyung was named League of Legends Worlds MVP in 2025.

During the play-ins, League of Legends Worlds Championship 2025 achieved a peak concurrent viewer count of 2,132,272. This occurred during T1 vs IG, the first of which has won a total of five world championships. The match winner will be presented at the bottom of the article to give readers time to avoid spoilers. A highlight of the match is linked below. 

The previous peak viewer count was 1,433,127 during Worlds 2024, when PNG and R7 were pitted against each other. The latest record from T1 vs IG surpassed the prior by more than 1 million viewers, a figure largely attributed to the fans of T1, home to Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok, who recently achieved Esports Player of the Decade. IG is short for Invictus Gaming, a team hailing from China and home to Kang “The Shy” Seung-lok. 

As for the results, T1 emerged victorious three to one during day one of the Play-In stages. The Play-In stage lasts a day, with the Swiss stage beginning on Oct. 15 and lasting until Oct. 28 at 12 am PT. The Worlds finale takes place on Nov. 9; most of the tournament features Fearless Draft.

On Oct. 10, League of Legends Esports announced that Sentinels will be officially joining the League Championship Series (LCS) as a permanent team. This begins in the 2026 season, during which Sentinels will take over the Provisional Guest Team slot. Sentinels’ joining the league is going to usher in a new era of competition in North America for the LCS.

The LCS is returning to an independent league model in 2026, meaning it will no longer be unified under the LTA structure. Each league will operate a distinct season, crown its champion and have its own distinct path for international competition. In 2025, the League of the Americas (LTA) was implemented to raise competitiveness across the region; it was part of a broader revision of the global business model of LoL Esports.

The independent league model confirms the LCS’s participation in next year’s Worlds. As for the upcoming League of Legends Worlds, play-in stages are just around the corner on Oct. 14.

Riot Games delayed the release of the upcoming League of Legends Worlds music video to edit out professional player Gabriël “Bwipo” Rau, who is under fire for making sexist comments during a livestream.

The entire international event concludes on Nov. 9. 

Riot Games delayed the release of the upcoming League of Legends Worlds music video to edit out professional player Gabriël “Bwipo” Rau, who is under fire for making sexist comments during a livestream. The video is now scheduled for Oct. 13, a few days later than originally planned. The delay announcement was on Oct. 8, where the official LoL Esports account stated that “we decided it wouldn’t be right to showcase him in a piece that represents LoL Esports, pro players, and fans.” 

Editing the player out of the video requires significant changes during the final stages of production. Bwipo was originally going to represent the Americas, but due to his actions and the removal of the player from the music video, “that region will not appear in this year’s video as originally intended.” 

Bwipo’s controversial comment stated that women shouldn’t compete in esports tournaments during their periods, and that women “don’t have much room to be competitive, basically.” 

The decision to delay and reedit the worlds music video is not a part of any competitive ruling, but a decision Riot made to represent its sport and community on a global stage. Worlds begins on Oct. 14, concluding on Oct. 28. The global tournament has three stages, with most of the stages featuring Fearless Draft. 

In its latest developers’ vlog, Riot Games addressed smurfing, targeting boosting, and hitchhiking. Hitchhiking is queuing up with another account, typically a booster, and getting carried to a higher-ranked division. The system hits indiscriminately, resulting in even Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng’s League of Legends accounts becoming banned.

Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng received news from a Riot developer during his stream who said that all his League of Legends accounts were being banned. The reason provided by Riot is that the accounts he’s been using for unranked to challenger videos were bought from suspicious websites.

Peng mentioned that he believes the punishment is fair and that he’s not going to do anything to avoid the Riot bans on his accounts. He said that when he bought those accounts from suspicious websites, he knew he was playing with fire but thought that he wouldn’t be the first one to be caught because there are a lot of people who do the same.

His accounts will be banned for three days, according to Peng. As such, he’s going to go for a “Riot-mandated vacation starting tomorrow.” He also said that Riot had told him the bans would start the following day to avoid banning him mid-stream.

Peng is considered one of the best AD Carries in the history of League of Legends. He has won LCS titles with teams such as Team SoloMid and Team Liquid.

While technically retired since 2020, he still competes, returning to play for Team SoloMid one more time in 2021 and then 100 Thieves in 2022. His latest endeavor with professional play was this year, when he played for Near Airport, an American team consisting of former pros.

League of Legends Worlds is just around the corner, with the Play-In Stage beginning on Oct. 14 at 1 am PT. The second Swiss stage begins on Oct. 15 at 1 am PT and concludes Oct. 25, with the final Knockout Stage starting Oct. 28 at 12 am PT. The League of Legends Worlds finale will take place on Nov. 9. 

Most of the stages will have Fearless Draft. The only stage to not have the new fearless draft, where any champion picked by either team in a previous game becomes unavailable to both teams for the remainder of the series, is the best of 1 portion of the Swiss Stage. 

The much-anticipated opening ceremony takes place during the final day of Worlds, leading up to the grand finale of the international tournament. Riot Games has some exclusive emotes for viewers to earn. Watching on LoLEsports.com can unlock nine exclusive rewards, each dropped during key moments along the road to Finals. Here are the announced rewards: 

• Opening Day: LET’S GOOO! Emote
• Beginning of Swiss Stage: o7 Emote
• Second week of Swiss Stage: What Just Happened? Emote
• Quarter Finals: Come Get It! Emote
• Semi-Finals: I’M. NOT. SAD. Emote, Viktor-y! Emote
• Finals: POWER UP! Emote, Cheerful Worlds Icon
• Trophy Ceremony: Buffmo Emote

Riot is also continuing the tradition of holding Pick’Ems, allowing viewers to predict the results of the tournament. Kinkou Xin Zhao is the featured skin for this upcoming Worlds. From Nov. 10 to 18, Riot is giving players a “chance to grab the same skins used by the winning team during the Finals at a major discount.” The offering features role-specific bundles at 50% off with dynamic pricing that adjusts based on what the player already owns. Players can also pick up individual skins at 33% off.

The League of Legends Asian Invitationals 2025 pits teams from the LCK, LPL, and LCP against one another, granting teams that did not qualify for the World Championship an opportunity to showcase their performance. The event begins on Oct. 6, 2025, featuring eight teams: 

• 5th, 6th and 7th seeds from the LCK
• 5th, 6th and 7th seeds from the LPL
• 4th and 5th seeds from the LCP

Not all of the participants have been decided, as some of the LPL and LCK matches, as of writing, are still ongoing. But the confirmed teams thus far are BNK FEWARX, NS RedForce, GAM Esports, and MGN Vikings Esports. 

Beginning on Oct. 6, 2025 and concluding on Oct. 12, the League of Legends Asian Invitational 2025 is the very first of its kind. Winning this inaugural tournament does not allow for any opportunity to advance to worlds, and instead, it is marketed to provide more international competition among high-ranking teams.

The tournament prize pool is 1,500,000 Chinese Yuan, equivalent to approximately $200,000, taking place in Asia a week before the opening World Championship matches. The event is purely online and does not have a physical venue, marketed with the slogan: “Fight One More.” League of Legends Asian Invitational 2025 is co-hosted by China’s streaming platforms, Huya, Douyu and Bilibili. 

In a now-deleted stream on Sept. 9, 2025, League of Legends professional player Gabriël “Bwipo” Rau said that women shouldn’t compete in esports tournaments during their periods and that women “don’t have much room to be competitive, basically.”

While Bwipo said that everything he said was just from his experience and that he might be wrong, the comments still sparked backlash online due to their sexist nature and harmful ideas that might propagate from them.

As such, his team, FlyQuest, has decided to suspend him for the next series in the LTA playoffs and donate his prize money to causes that support women in gaming. “Comments that might discourage even one young woman from pursuing her dream of becoming a pro player harm the future of esports, and we take that very seriously,” said FlyQuest.

Sentinels female Marvel Rivals pro player Chassidy “Aramori” Kaye said that she won Ignite 2025 Stage 1: Americas while on her period. The tournament is considered an A-tier, which means that it is only attended by top teams. She’s a part of a mixed-gender team.

On Sept. 10, 2025, Bwipo published an apology on X, saying that he knows he made a mistake and that his comments were “ignorant and disrespectful to women, including those close to me.” He ended the apology by saying that he will be “taking steps to reflect, listen, and do better.”

During a stream, professional League of Legends player Wenbo “JackeyLove” Yu contemplated retiring from professional play, as his chronic tinnitus has come to a point where it has been causing him problems.

He mentioned that the doctor has told him that the best he can do is to play a game or two, then move around or walk around. He commented further that he has too many injuries and that he can’t take care of them while he is still playing at the highest level of the game.

JackeyLove also said that while he doesn’t know if he’s going to still be playing next year, he plans to finish this year and then get his health reassessed. It’s up in the air if he’s going to start streaming more frequently, just like other League of Legends professional players who retired.

JackeyLove is one of China’s best AD Carry players in the game. He was framed as the successor of Jian “Uzi” Zihao after his first retirement in 2020. Uzi had stints with Bilibili Gaming from 2021 to 2022 but soon retired after losing the desire to compete.

JackeyLove’s team, Top Esports, is set to face Ninjas in Pyjamas on Sept. 8. The team is currently aiming to be crowned the champion of the split and take the top seed at the League of Legends World Championship 2025.